Hard Drive problem on boot up

[hibeesmad]

When the computer is switched on, it loads fine to the Windows Loading screen (XP), I then here a scratching noise and this continues for a couple of minutes before I hear a louder boot noise, after I hear this I switch off the PC at the power button and then it works on next boot.

I have tried changing what programs run on boot and also tried a disk defrag but this still occurs.

Any help would be appreciated,

Johnny.

 

[strelly]

Does it ever make a noise before the windows screen?

Is the hard drive old?

That seems like a strange problem, it may just be a fault with windows maybe? If it is then a format may be necessary,

but I generally always relate bad hard drive noise to a hardware fault, so it could be worth rechecking your power & data cables.